Middle Child Syndrome Have you ever wondered if your birth place, particularly that of a middle child, has any effect on your personality and conscience? Psychologists and many others have actually pondered the subject, and believe that there is a connection between your personality development and your niche in the family. Many people, myself included, have wondered why some siblings are treated differently than others. For instance, the eldest usually gets more responsibility and privileges, whereas the youngest is usually coddled gets out of trouble Scott-free. This in fact relates to Birth Order. Birth Order: A child’s place in relation to sibling(s). In a number of siblings, it is also the child's rank based by age. This exerts more of an effect on personality than intelligence (“What is birth order?”). But if the eldest gets more privileges and responsibility, and the youngest gets out of trouble and is coddled, what does the middle child get? This now leads us to Middle Child Syndrome. Middle Child Syndrome: When a middle child, usually the second of three close aged kids, feels left out, overlooked, and neglected (“Middle Child Syndrome”). You may be asking yourself ' Is birth order an actual thing?'. With a fair chunk of research over ten years old and counting, most of this research done by doctors, psychologists, and professors (Dr. Kevin Leman, Catherine Salman, Dr. Ronald W. Richardson) it is quite obvious that this is an actual thing. With so much hype on this topic, one thing we need to think about is how do we judge differences between children? How do we justify generalizing that the oldest is responsible, the... ... middle of paper ... ...tunity to become more than a victim of circumstance. We have the chance to grow in who we are as middle children, and use it to our advantage. Source #1: (“What is birth order?”) http://psychologydictionary.org/birth-order/ Source #2: (“Middle Child Syndrome”) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Middle%20Child%20Syndrome Source #3: (“Understanding the power of Birth Order”) http://www.today.com/id/39459807/ns/today-parenting_and_family/t/understanding-power-birth-order/#.UzNpBqhdXE0 Source #4: (“Born In Between”) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/field-guide-families/201210/born-in-between Source #5: (“Peer Relations in Middle Childhood”) http://www.education.com/reference/article/peer-relations-middle-childhood/ Source #6: (“Middles More successful?”) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2079636/Middle-children-MORE-successful-So-true-family.html
The achievers, the gamblers and visionaries, and the undefined, this is how Jeffery Kluger describes the oldest, youngest, and middle child in his article “The Power of Birth Order” (409). The birth order is a phenomenon, studied by many scientists, that has been impacting the way siblings think and act for years. The birth order classifies the oldest child, who is the achiever; the middle child, who is a hybrid of the oldest and youngest; and last but not least, the youngest child, who is the adventurer of the family. The fact that the birth order affects the personalities of siblings is becoming more and more evident and the classifications of the firstborn, middle child, and youngest child have been proved to be very accurate.
As time passes children grow up in a huge family, sometimes with some deficit, hardship and even with some depression while they have difficult moments. To overcome obstacles in life for each child in their family is one of the main goals for their future. As my mom often remembers, my grandfather used to say “When there is a definite goal, effort to achieve it becomes enjoyment”.
Blair, L. (2011). Birth Order: What Your Position in the Family Really Tells You About Your
Middle Childhood is a distinct period of development where a child develops physically, cognitively and social-emotionally. Between the school years of 3 and 7, children begin to gain an understanding of themselves in comparison to others, learn large amounts of information, manage their behaviour and also develop self-concepts and self-esteem. (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010.)
‘Birth order theory can help explain why children raised in the same family environment with a strong genetic relationship can have such different personalities’ (Drysdale, 2011). The birth order theory says that ‘first-borns are leaders, the drivers and the responsible type. They love to feel in control and feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook’ (Grose, 2013). The personality theory says that last-borns are majorly different to first-borns in their characteristics and traits. It states that last-borns are ‘the
Does birth order really affect who we are? Sigmund Freud was the first psychotherapist to say, " a child's position in the sequence of brother and sisters is of very great significance for one course of his later life." The type of person that we become stems from many things including birth order position, gender and the genders of the other siblings. Although personality is affected by many different factors, such as heredity, family size, the spacing and the gender of other siblings, education and upbringing, birth order plays a very important role and gives many clues as to why people are the was they are. Dr. Alfred Adler, a renowned psychiatrist, wrote that a person's position in the family leaves an undeniable "stamp" on his or her "style of living."
The patterns of birth order have been seen for centuries, although it was not studied exclusively until around the 1980s. There are many factors that play into a persons personality, such as their genetics, the way they are raised, and their environment. Birth order looks at a persons place in their family—if they are the oldest, middle, or youngest child—and provides commonalities between them and others in the same location in other families. While there are many variations, the general traits do apply. Research shows that the first born is typically a leader in the family and in other areas of life. The youngest child is usually light hearted and social. The one that is hardest to put a type to is the middle child. He or she will frequently try to blaze their own path, straying from the one that their older sibling made. I believe that birth order plays a part in a person’s personality, but that the way they were raised is also a very important variable. A child’s birth order, along with the way they were raised, is a major factor in the way they interact within their family and other groups.
Have you ever wondered why you and your siblings never get along, or why you are so different? I wondered the same thing until I read an article about birth orders effects on personality. This had to be why she had never spent an hour away from my parents and I haven’t willingly been within thirty feet of them since I was six, Why I love to read well above my grade level and my sister, a sixth grader, reads mainly Captain Underpants books when not glued to the T.V. and why we are a similar as oil and water.
What if you had the opportunity to see something you had never seen before. Would you take a camera? Would you go? Would you give it a thought? This is what goes through the mind of a person like me. More specifically a middle child, they put way too much thought into things. I am Josh, and I am a middle child. I’ve said it once and one more time wont hurt, being a middle child was hard let me tell you about me.
Children in middle childhood are growing psychosocially at a quick rate. During middle childhood they become industrious, develop a self-concept, and learn how to be friends, amongst other things.
Culture, where and how a person is raised, affects a person no matter how much they dislike the way they are being taught the ways of life. However, moving to different places as a child and coun...
Hartshorne, Joshua K. “How Birth Order Affects Your Personality”. Scientificamerican, 22 June 2002. Web. 30 April 2014.
...what we want to be when we grow up. We never thought of how hard it would be to be accepted by one another. Sometimes you may not like someone, but they may help you reach the top. When we see people with less, it is hard not to help them because you feel responsible. Some people may seem nice and innocent, but everyone has a part in peer cruelty. No one is innocent of bullying. Some people may say that adolescence is about fitting in, but if you try to be your own person, then some people may except you and others may not.
For so many years I’ve heard the argument of older siblings having it harder than their successors. Muttering and murmuring away in the background about the inequality that comes with being the older sibling. But hey, what about the younger ones? The people constantly being referred to as number two; that have to deal with the
Everyone in the world goes through responsibilities, either a child or an adult, but we all attain things that we must take care. For children